Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Today

I thought today was a really hard day. I felt really tired, the kids were super uncooperative every time I tried to get them to do anything, I had more errands to run than I actually had time for, appointments kept popping up, I couldn't put on my comfy pants and curl up on the couch after the kids went to bed because I had a thing to go to. The list goes on. (And I had to make salad for 70 people, you guys!) And I was grumpy.

In the midst of my grumpiness (not helped by discovering that my favorite pair of tights have a giant hole on the heel), I texted back and forth a little bit with a friend and joked about me needing an attitude adjustment. We fantasized about running away from it all and just eating pie on the couch in our comfies. The thought made me smile.

That smile was like flipping a switch. I looked back on my day, and realized that the things that had felt so hard and so frustrating were actually pretty great. I was tired this morning because I stayed up late snuggling with my husband and watching a few favorite shows. The kids were for the most part super uncooperative because they just wanted to play with each other, and not go run errands. When I had more errands than I knew what to do with, my sweet friend and neighbor offered to run one of them for me. Then she had me and the kids over for lunch. When it was time to go home so Gwen could take a nap, she invited Espen to stay and play for the afternoon, which meant that I even got a few hours to myself. Another sweet neighbor brought me a plate of cookies today. And the salad I had to make for 70 people was for a dinner with the ladies at church. Which in turn meant that all of those ladies got the night off from making dinner, and could sit down to a meal prepared especially for them. How lucky am I to be able to help do that for them? This list goes on too!

I thought today was a really hard day. But it turns out that the only hardness was within me. When I stopped and looked around, I saw that my day had actually been filled with kind and loving friends, kids who love each other, and a chance to serve others.